The top teenage goal contributors in Europe

There have been several young players who have made significant contributions in their first-teams this season

There are few things that football fans enjoy more than an exciting young player bursting onto the scene and making a big contribution to their club’s first-team. It’s particularly exciting when those players are seen as ‘one of their own’ as they’ve grown up coming through the club’s academy system and perhaps are even supporters.  

Whilst any young player like that tends to quickly become a fan-favourite, young players who contribute regular goals and assists are a dream for any club. As above, fans love them but as well as that, executives will be very aware of how those players will grow in value, potentially attracting huge offers in the future, quickly making them one of the club’s top assets which could go onto finance major team upgrades.  

With that in mind, here are the five teenagers who contributed the most in terms of goals and assists in Europe’s top leagues in 21/22. 

Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen) 

First up, Florian Wirtz of Leverkusen. The 19-year-old broke made his debut two seasons ago but this was the season where he exploded in terms of output as he scored 7 goals and assisted 10 more from his attacking midfield position. He managed his 17 goal contributions from just 24 matches and would surely have made many more were it not for sustaining a serious injury. All german football fans will hope he can return to his best once he recovers, as he is the future of the national team.  

Hugo Ekitike 

The teenage striker from Reims seems highly likely to leave this summer, after a season in which he scored 10 Ligue 1 goals at the age of only 19. He also added four assists, bringing his total goal contributions to 14 in 24 appearances. This is particularly impressive, given that he had only 86 minutes of Ligue 1 experience before this season.  

Reims could be set to make big money on the young striker, as both PSG and Newcastle United are both circling.  

Elye Wahi 

Another young Frenchman, Wahi completed his second season as part of Montpellier’s first team by making a far bigger contribution than his first. In 20/21, the then 18-year-old contributed 3 goals and 1 assist in 18 appearances. In 21/22, he played 33 times, scoring 10 goals and assisting another 2 as his side finished in 13th place in Ligue 1.  

Jude Bellingham  

Undoubtedly the highest-profile player on this list, Bellingham has already moved for a large transfer fee once already in his career, as Dortmund paid £22.5million to buy him from Birmingham after he had starred in the Championship as a 16-year-old.  

At Dortmund, he has blossomed as a top-level player and there are calls for him to become an automatic starter for England after a season in which he played 32 Bundesliga games, scoring 3 times and assisting 8 further goals.  

Whilst he may remain in Germany for another season, the midfielder is sure to have a huge move ahead of him in the next couple of seasons.  

Yeremy Pino 

Moving to Spain, we have Villareal’s Yeremy Pino. The young winger contributed 10 goal contributions in 21/22 as he scored 6 times and assisted 4 from his position on the right flank.  

The Spanish side have their young winger tied to a contract until 2027, which could serve them very well as it protects them from losing him for a low fee in the near future. Given that his value on Transfermarkt is already over £30million, if he performs similarly in the next season or two, the Spanish Under 21 international could deliver a huge transfer fee for the Champions League semi-finalists to revamp their squad with.